Call processing and subscriber registration systems and methods

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to telecommunications, and in particular, to systems and processes for processing telephone calls and providing telephony services. In one embodiment, a call processing system, compromises a first telephony interface configured to receive a call from a caller, a storage device configured to store a greeting, and a call answering system. The call answering system is configured to play the greeting in response to receiving the call, record a voice message from the caller, determine when the caller has completed recording the voice message, after determining that the caller has completed recording the voice message, play a prompt regarding the caller becoming a subscriber to call services provided by the call processing system, receive from the caller information used to establish a call services account, and establish a call services account for the caller.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/598,432, filed Aug. 29, 2012, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/184,953, filed Aug. 1, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No.8,259,911, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/008,779, filed Dec. 9, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,409,048, thecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to telecommunications, and in particular,to systems and processes for processing telephone calls and providingtelephony services.

2. Description of the Related Art

Certain conventional telephone systems redirect incoming callsencountering a ring-no-answer, busy, or do-not-disturb condition, to avoice messaging system (VMS) on which the caller can record a messagefor the called party. When answering a call, certain conventional voicemessaging systems play a tone, a system standard greeting or a calledparty's recorded greeting, followed by a record tone. The message of thecaller is recorded. In some cases, a conventional VMS may offer thecaller certain options related to leaving a message, such as the optionof reviewing or deleting a message.

Generally, the call answering features provided by a conventional voicemessaging system are often designed to facilitate the recording of amessage for a called party or to transfer to a person who might be ableto locate the called party.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a telecommunication system thatprocesses incoming phone calls and enables a caller to subscribe to callprocessing services.

In one embodiment, an incoming call intended for a subscriber isreceived by the call processing system. The incoming call may have beenforwarded to the call processing system as a result of aforward-calls-on-busy (BCF), ring-no-answer (RNA), or do-not-disturb(DND) condition. In addition, the incoming call may have been receivedat the call processing system as a result of the caller dialing a phonenumber associated with the called party, but that when dialed, connectsthe caller to the call processing system without the need for aforwarding process. Optionally, if Caller-ID or other calleridentification information is available, the call processing can recordthe Caller-ID or other caller identification information.

Upon receiving the incoming call, the call processing system can promptthe caller, via a tone or voice prompt to leave a message. For example,the prompt can be in the form of a system standard greeting or agreeting previously recorded by the called party. The called party mayhave selected which greeting is to be played to callers. The callerparty then records a message on the call processing system which isstored in memory and/or optionally streamed to a phone or computerterminal associated with the called party. The call processing systemcan determine that the caller has completed leaving the message. Forexample, the call processing can detect when the called party has ceasedspeaking for a predetermined amount of time, and/or detect a caller keypress that indicates the caller has completed leaving a message. Upondetermining that the caller has completed leaving a message, in oneembodiment, the call processing system prompts the caller to press a keyor provide a voice command if the caller wishes to become, and registeras a subscriber to the call answering service and/or other callprocessing services for themselves.

Optionally, if Caller-ID or other caller identification information wasreceived with the call, the call processing system uses this informationto determine if the caller is already a subscriber prior to providingthe foregoing prompts. For example, the call processing system cansearch a subscriber database, file or other data store using theCaller-ID information or a portion thereof as a search key to determineif the caller is already a subscriber. Optionally, if the callprocessing system determines the caller is already a subscriber, theprompt asking if the caller wants to subscribe, and/or providinginstructions regarding becoming a subscriber, are not provided.

Assuming the call processing has provided the prompt, and the caller hasprovided a corresponding key press and/or voice command, the caller keypress or voice command initiates, by way of example, an InteractiveVoice Response (IVR) session to collect the appropriate information fromand/or for the caller so that customer care personnel or other agent cantranscribe the information and fulfill the request for service.Optionally, in response to the caller key press or voice command, thecall processing system can instead connect or forward the caller to aservice center wherein service center personnel, such as a live agent,can request that the caller provide certain information, such as billinginformation, contact information, the caller's home phone number, workphone number, wireless/cell phone number, other phone numbers, homeemail address, work email address, other email addresses, and so on.

In addition, the personnel can provide the caller with a description ofthe available service offered by the call processing system andassociated cost, if any, and record which of the services the callerwants. For example, the services can include call answering services,call screening services, and so on. The foregoing collected informationcan be entered in the fields of an appropriate electronic form, such asa registration form, displayed on a terminal screen, and stored in asubscriber or other database or data store. Optionally, if the caller'scall included signaling information, such as Caller-ID information, thatinformation can be used to automatically pre-populate certain subscriberrecord fields.

In another embodiment, the service provider may elect to optionallytransfer the call to a live agent who will assist them in signing up forthe service.

By way of example, in an embodiment, a method of processing a call at acall processing system comprises: receiving at a call processing systema first call from a caller, the first call intended for a user, thefirst call including associated signaling information; obtaining calleridentification information from the signaling information; transmittingnotification information to a computer associated with the user;establishing a 2-way talk path between the call processing system andthe caller; playing a greeting to the caller; recording a voice messagefrom the caller; determining when the caller has completed recording thevoice message; determining if a first parameter related to the caller ismet based at least in part on information retrieved from a data storeusing the caller identification information; based at least in part onthe first parameter being met, playing a sales lead generation prompt;receiving an instruction from the caller provided at least partly inresponse to the sales lead generation prompt; based at least in part onthe response: originating a second call to a call center; bridging thefirst call and the second call; receiving information from the caller atthe call center; and establishing an account for the caller using atleast a portion of the received information.

By way of further example, in an embodiment, a call processing system,compromising: a first telephony interface configured to receive a callfrom a caller; a storage device configured to store a greeting; and acall answering system configured to: play the greeting in response toreceiving the call; record a voice message from the caller; determinewhen the caller has completed recording the voice message; afterdetermining that the caller has completed recording the voice message,and play a prompt regarding the caller becoming a subscriber to callservices provided by the call processing system.

By way of another example, in an embodiment, a method of processing acall compromises: receiving at a call processing system a first callfrom a caller, the first call intended for a user; playing a prompt tothe caller during the first call, the prompt asking the caller to take afirst action if the caller wants to subscribe to at least a first callprocessing service; at least partly in response to the first action,requesting account information from the caller; recording the requestedaccount information from the caller, wherein at least a portion of theaccount information is to be used to provide call processing services tothe caller; and during the first call, recording a voice message fromthe caller for the called party.

By way of yet another example, in an embodiment, a method of processinga call comprises: receiving at a call processing system a first callfrom a caller, the first call intended for a user, the first callincluding associated signaling information; playing a greeting to thecaller asking the caller if the caller wants to record a message for theuser; determining if a first parameter related to the caller is metbased at least in part on information retrieved from a data store usingthe caller identification information; based at least in part on thefirst parameter being met, playing a sales prompt; receiving aninstruction from the caller provided at least partly in response to thesales prompt; at least partly in response to receiving the instruction,requesting information from the caller; and recording requestedinformation from the caller.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example telecommunications system that can be usedin accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 further details subsystems that included in the call answeringsystem depicted in FIG. 1 described above.

FIG. 3 illustrates a first example trailer lead generation process.

FIG. 4 illustrates a second example trailer lead generation process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention relates to a telecommunication system thatprocesses incoming phone calls and enables a caller to subscribe to callprocessing services.

Throughout the following description, the term “Web site” is used torefer to a user-accessible network site that implements the basic WorldWide Web standards for the coding and transmission of hypertextualdocuments. These standards currently include HTML (the Hypertext MarkupLanguage) and HTTP (the Hypertext Transfer Protocol). It should beunderstood that the term “site” is not intended to imply a singlegeographic location, as a Web or other network site can, for example,include multiple geographically distributed computer systems that areappropriately linked together. Furthermore, while the followingdescription relates to an embodiment utilizing the Internet and relatedprotocols, other networks, such as networked interactive televisions,and other protocols may be used as well. In addition, unless otherwiseindicated, the functions described herein are preferably performed byexecutable code and instructions running on one or more general-purposecomputers. However, the present invention can also be implemented usingspecial purpose computers, state machines, and/or hardwired electroniccircuits.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example telecommunications system that can be usedin accordance with the present invention. As illustrated, thetelecommunications system includes:

-   -   a plurality of user telephone stations 102, 112.    -   a plurality of user computer terminals 110.    -   a call processing system 124 that acts as an Internet Call        Answering (ICA) system.        These devices are linked together using various line and trunk        circuits to a Public Switched Network (PSTN) 104 and to a common        data network, such as the Internet 106.

FIG. 2 further decomposes the ICA system 124 into its functionalcomponents:

-   -   a Call Management (CM) subsystem 108, which serves as the        interface to the PSTN 104 to manage inbound and outbound        telephone calls.    -   a Router subsystem 140, which serves as the interface to the        Internet 106 to manage communications between online IP client        devices and the various ICA servers.    -   an online presence detection Internet Session Management (SM)        subsystem 122, which monitors the status of subscriber data        terminals to determine availability for call handling services.    -   a shared Media Storage (MS) subsystem 138, which persistently        archives the caller's voice messages and the called        party/subscriber's personal greeting(s).    -   an ICA Database (DB) subsystem 136 in which called        party/subscriber ICA service parameters are stored.

The various subsystems are interconnected via a Local Area Network (LAN)and/or via a Wide Area Network (WAN). Other embodiments of the ICAsystem 124 are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/539,375,filed Mar. 31, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,477,246, the contents of whichare incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

CallWave, Inc. operates one such ICA system. As is well known in thefield of Internet telecommunications, an ICA service works with the“Call Forward On Busy” feature of a standard phone line to answer callswhile the subscriber is online and is using the phone line to access theInternet. Once activated, callers no longer get annoying busy signalswhen the subscriber is online. Instead, callers hear a brief greetingafter which they can leave a short message. The recording can bestreamed in substantially real-time or sent to the subscriber over theInternet within seconds after the recording has completed. As with ahome telephone answering machine, the subscriber can elect to interactwith the caller while they are still on the line or can call them backat a later time.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the user telephone stations 102, 112 arerespectively connected to local exchange switches 126, 128 via telephonelines 134, 114. The stations 102, 112 can optionally be conventionalPOTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) telephones or local extensions behinda corporate Private Branch Exchange (PBX).

The telephone stations 102, 112 can be coupled to the same switch ordifferent switches. If the telephone stations 102, 112 are coupled tothe same switch, the switch will be local to both the calling and calledparties, such as for intra-LATA or local calls. If telephone stations102, 112 are coupled to different switches, each switch may be localonly to one of the parties, as is the case for non-local calls such asinter-LATA (long-distance) calls.

In the illustrated embodiment, the CM subsystem 108 is coupled into thePSTN 104 through voice trunk circuits 118 directly interfacing with theInter Exchange Carrier's (IXC) circuit switched or packet switchedtelephony network. Thus, advantageously the ICA system 124 does not haveto be directly serviced by the same Local Exchange Carrier's (LEC)switch or PBX as the calling or called terminals 102 and 112. Indeed,the ICA system 124 or its individual subsystem components can be locatedin a different country than the called and calling parties. In thisexample, the ICA system 124 is locally attached to a LEC switch with aphysical line or local trunk interface circuit. This switch may or maynot be serving telephone stations 102 and/or 112.

Optionally, the CM subsystem 108 is coupled into the PSTN 104 through anIP connection. A gateway within the PSTN 104 answers inbound calls,packetizes voice data, and delivers the call to the CM subsystem 108 asa VoIP stream. Signaling information is provided in a SIP/H.323 formator other appropriate format at the CM subsystem 108. An example VoIPnetwork is that provided by Level 3 Corporation, although there are manyother sources and implementations of VoIP networks.

The ICA voice trunk circuits 118 are not limited to a particularsignaling convention. For example, the present invention can be utilizedwith a Common Channel Signaling system, such as Signaling System 7(SS7), having separate voice/user data and signaling channels. Inaddition, the present invention can be used with other signalingmethods, such as the following trunk-side signaling interfaces:ISDN-PRI; Advanced Intelligent Network; and/or Service Nodearchitectures. Preferably, the selected signaling system provides asuite of call presentation information to the ICA system 124, includingone or more of:

-   -   ANI—Automatic Number Identification: phone number and privacy        indicator of the calling party (“Caller-ID”).    -   DNIS—Dialed Number Identification: phone number of the ICA        system's voice trunks 118 that the call was forwarded to.    -   OCN—Original Called Number Identification: phone number of the        original called party (subscriber to the ICA service).    -   Call Type—Forwarded call due to a BCF, RNA, or DND/CFA        condition. In addition, directly dialed inbound calls can be        handled as well. In this instance, the caller will need to        implement a second stage of dialing to enter the subscriber's        phone number or the subscriber could be assigned a unique        personal number that is directly dialed by their callers        (sometime referred to herein as a “personal number”).

The telephone lines 134, 114 may be shared with one or more computerterminals. For example, telephone terminal 112 shares the telephone line114 with a computer terminal 110. While in the illustrated example thecomputer terminal 110 is a personal computer, the computer terminal 110can be an interactive television, a networked-enabled personal digitalassistant (PDA), other IP (Internet Protocol) device, or the like.Alternatively, the computer terminal 110 can be a personal computerhaving a monitor, keyboard, a mouse, a disk drive, sound card or similarsound reproduction circuitry such as a codec, streaming media playbacksoftware, such as the Media Player program available from Microsoft,speakers, and a modem, such as a standard V.90 56K dial-up modem. Themodem can optionally be configured to dial-up a number under control ofan application, such as a contact manager application ortelecommunications client application phone dialer, stored and executingon the computer terminal 110.

The telephone line 114, can be used to establish a dial-up connectionfor computer terminals, such as terminal 110 via the computer modem, toan Internet Service Provider (ISP) offering dial-in remote accessservice connections from the PSTN 104 via trunk interface circuits 120.The computer terminal 110 can also be connected to the Internet 106 viaa broadband connection, such as a DSL line, a television cable line, ora T1 line.

In addition, the computer terminal 110 can be equipped with a Voice overInternet Protocol (VoIP) software module and a headset or a handset 132,including a microphone and speaker, allowing voice communications to beconducted over a computer network, such as the Internet 106. VoIPcommunicates information via packet switching, which opens a connectionjust long enough to send a small packet of data. Each packet includes adestination address informing the network where to send the packet alongwith the actual voice data payload. If the receiving station is also aVoIP terminal, then when the receiving terminal receives the packets,VoIP software executing on the receiving terminal reassembles thepackets into the original data stream. The data stream is then convertedto a voice signal. If the receiving station is a conventional telephone,then a VoIP gateway converts the packets into a voice signal that isthen connected to the PSTN 104.

In one embodiment, the VoIP process is performed using the H.323standardized protocol established by the InternationalTelecommunications Union (ITU). Advantageously, H.323 providesspecifications for real-time, interactive videoconferencing, datasharing and audio applications such as IP telephony. Alternatively, theSession Initiation Protocol (SIP), established by the InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF), can be used. SIP is generally moreefficient than the H.323 protocol as SIP is specifically intended for IPtelephony. For example, as similarly described above, the processingsystem CM subsystem 108 is coupled into the PSTN 104 through an IPconnection. A gateway within the PSTN 104 answers inbound calls,packetizes voice data, and delivers the call to the CM subsystem 108 asa VoIP stream. Signaling information is optionally provided in aSIP/H.323 format or other appropriate format. Alternatively, proprietaryprotocols can optionally be deployed where multi-vendor interoperabilityis not required.

Optionally residing and executing on the computer terminal 110 is acommunications management Client application 116. The Client application116 is used to provide enhanced communication services, as discussed ingreater detail below. The Client application 116 is connected to andcommunicates with the ICA system 124 via the Internet 106, other publicwide area computer networks, or the like.

The ICA system 124 optionally hosts a Web site used by subscribers ofthe ICA service to setup and manage their accounts, to view informationabout incoming calls, and to instruct the ICA system 124 on how to routeincoming calls to one or more destination stations. Many of these samefunctions can be implemented by the Client application 116 as well. TheICA system 124 optionally includes an email client used to receive andtransmit communications to users, call centers, and so on.

The CM subsystem 108 manages communications with the Client application116 and with forwarded calls. The CM subsystem 108 can interact withcallers and called parties through voice prompts, voice commands, and/orDTMF touch-tone entries. The CM subsystem 108 is optionally configuredto perform additional functions, such as acting as a telephone answeringsystem that answers calls, playing outgoing greetings and announcements,recording incoming messages, and bridging calls. In addition, as will bedescribed in greater detail below, the CM subsystem 108 further providesa call screening process.

The SM subsystem 122 monitors the Internet for online IP devicesregistered to ICA subscribers to determine their availability forhandling inbound call screening and call handling services. When a useror subscriber connects to the Internet using, for example, a dial-upISP, the Client application 116 executing on the subscriber's computerterminal 110 makes the subscriber's online presence known to the ICAsystem 124. Presence detection can be performed by the SM subsystem 122polling or pinging the computer terminal 110 via the telecommunicationsClient application 116, or by the telecommunications Client application116 transmitting a “Login/I'm alive” message and subsequent periodic“keep alive” messages to the SM subsystem 122. Just prior to the normaltermination of the online Internet session, the Client application 116sends a “Logout” message to the SM subsystem 122. Abnormal Internetsession termination conditions are detected by the SM subsystem 122timing out the expected Client “Keep alive” message.

If, rather than using a dial-up connection, the user or subscriber isusing a broadband, always on-connection, such as via a DSL line or cablemodem, the Client application 116 optionally becomes active when thecomputer 110 is turned on or powered up and stays on until the usermanually shuts down the Client application 116, or the computer 110 isturned off or powered down.

With reference to FIG. 1, the called party's station 102 has beenconfigured with the local switching system 128 to forward calls on busy(BCF), ring-no-answer (RNA), or do-not-disturb (DND) to the voice trunkcircuits 118 connecting the CM subsystem 108 to the PSTN 104. Thecalling party initiates a call using the calling party telephone station102 by dialing the number of a called party's phone line 114. The PSTN104 routes this call to the called party's local switching system 128causing the called party's telephone terminal 112 to ring or to forwardthe call immediately if the line 114 is busy or set to do-not-disturb.If, for example, the called party does not answer within a certainamount of time or after a certain amount of rings, the associatedswitching system 128 detects a no-answer condition and invokes a switchoperation command termed “call forwarding on RNA”. The call is thenforwarded to a phone number of the CM subsystem 108.

Based at least in part on the OCN of the forwarded call (the originalcalled party's phone number), the CM subsystem 108 queries the SMsubsystem 122 to determine whether the called party is a registeredsubscriber, is online or offline, and what the subscriber's callhandling preferences are. If the called party's computer 110 is online,the CM subsystem 108 optionally opens a communication channel over thepublic Internet 106 to the Client application 116 running on the calledparty's computer terminal 110. The Caller-ID of the calling party, ifavailable, and if not designated as private, is optionally transmittedto the Client application 116 and is displayed to the subscriber alongwith an optional sound notification. The sound notification can be inthe form of ringing produced using the called party's computer terminal110 speakers.

The CM subsystem 108 proceeds to play a greeting to the calling party.The greeting can be a “canned” greeting or a personalized greetingpreviously recorded by the subscriber and stored in the MS subsystem138. The initial or subsequent greeting or prompt optionally includes avoice prompt inviting the caller to register for the service thesubscriber is using or a similar service.

One or more of the parameters discussed below enable the call processingsystem operator or service provider to control or throttle the number ofpotential requests on a system-wide or subscriber specific basis. Thiscan be used to manage the number of requests if the service provider hasa limited staff of live agents. For example, if there are not enoughcall center agents available, the playing of sales-related prompts canbe disabled. In addition, there may be a class of service in which it isinappropriate to generate sales leads using this method, such as whenthe called party has a premium business class of service, or when asubscriber has requested that caller's to the subscriber not besolicited to become or register as subscribers. In addition, the playingof solicitation prompts can be limited to certain periods of time, suchduring normal working hours, or in the evening, and/or to certain days,such as only on Monday-Friday, or only on Sunday and/or Saturday.

A service provider may also want to manage the number of impressions toa given caller based on caller ID. For example, if a caller has receiveda predetermined number of promotion events or prompts, optionally thecaller will not be provided with additional promotion events or promptsfor at least a predetermined amount of time. In an example embodiment,the call processing system can keep a record in a database or other datastore of the number of times a given solicitation prompt, such as apromotion prompt or trailer, has been played to a caller. Optionally,when a call is received by the call processing system, the callprocessing system obtains the Caller-ID or similar information, accessthe database, retrieves the number of times a promotional prompt ortrailer has been played to the phone number that matches the Caller-ID,and compares the number of play events with a predetermined number, andbased on that comparison, determines if the promotional prompts are tobe played again.

By way of illustration, if a caller associated with the phone number805-123-4567 has already heard the promotion or solicitation apredetermined number of times, such as 3 times, the call processingsystem can suppress future promotions of the service to the caller, orchange the promotion type. For example a promotion for a differentservice can be provided, or a special discount can be provided, or thesame promotion can be offered using different prompts or text.

Optionally, lead generation prompting can also be selectively suppressedbased on queries into a subscriber's address book, wherein the addressbook can be stored on the call processing system and/or the subscriber'scontact database or other data store stored on the subscriber's personalcomputer or other personal device. For example, if a subscriber hasentered or assigned an appropriate designation, such as a VIPdesignation, in association with a person and/or their phone number,then if a call is received from that person (as may be determined by thecall processing system by querying the subscriber's contact databaseusing the Caller-ID associated with the call), the lead generationprompting will be suppressed.

Still further, the service provider can optionally suppress the leadgeneration or promotion prompting based on the type of call, such thecall being forwarded to the call processing system as a result of a busyforward condition, a ring-no-answer forward condition, a do-not-disturbforward condition, and/or the call be placed directly (wherein the callwas not forwarded) to the call processing system.

By way of example, if a system-wide and subscriber-level configurationparameter is enabled, a “canned” or prerecorded lead generation greetinginvites the caller to press the “#” key (or other designated key) whenthey are finished leaving a message. After the caller leaves a messageand presses the “#” key (or optionally stops speaking for apredetermined amount of time), the CM subsystem 108 plays a voice promptpromoting the service and inviting the caller to press a key or providea verbal response in order to receive more information regardingsubscribing to the service via the phone call, or requests that the callaccess a web site to receive more information and/or to subscribe.

The following is an example prompt, although other text can be used aswell: “Thank you. Your message is being played now (or will be played)by your party. If you would like to learn more about getting importantcall answering services, press 1 now or visit www.callwave.com.” If thecaller selects the more information option (by pressing key 1 in thisexample), the CM subsystem 108 plays a voice prompt requesting thecaller leave contact information. For example, the prompt can recite:“Now's your chance to try CallWave risk-free . . . . After the tone,please say AND spell your email address.” After the CM subsystem 108records the caller's contact information the CM subsystem 108 plays aclosing voice prompt. For example, the prompt can recite: “Aconfirmation email will be sent to you shortly. Thanks for your interestin CallWave.”

The CM subsystem 108 optionally sends the recorded contact informationas an email with a voice file attachment to a customer carerepresentative connected to the local area network 137 or through thedata lines 142, to the Internet, to a customer care representativeoff-site. The recorded contact information and/or voice mail can betransmitted using other techniques as well. Support or other personneltranscribes the contact information, combines or associates the contactinformation with the caller's phone number (obtained from the caller IDsignaling information or otherwise), and transcribes this informationinto a paper or electronic form that can be used by other personnel toplace a return call and/or send an HTML email to the caller to completethe sign-on process.

Optionally, rather than having the caller record their contactinformation for later follow-up, the caller can be placed in contactwith a live operator in response to the caller pressing the “1” key (orother designated key). For example, after the caller leaves a messageand requests additional information, the CM subsystem 108 plays a voiceprompt informing the caller that the call is being transferred to anoperator. For example, the prompt can recite “Thank you for yourinterest in our services, your call is being transferred to anoperator.” Optionally, substantially simultaneously, the CM subsystem108 originates a new call to a Call Center 130 via the telephone trunks118. When the Call Center 130 answers, the CM subsystem 108 bridges theinbound call to the outbound call.

In an example embodiment, if the subscriber had recorded a personalizedgreeting, the CM subsystem 108 optionally plays a voice prompt after thegreeting and before the record tone instructing the caller to enter akey press to “send” the message (e.g. prompt, “Begin recording after thetone, press # when you are finished.”).

In another example, the Call Processing System 124 is optionally closelyintegrated with the Call Center telephone/Automatic Call Distributionsystem. Before a call is routed from the call processing system one ormore pre-routing checks are optionally performed. If a check fails, thecaller is optionally defaulted into an IVR treatment, wherein the callerwill provide information to an automated system rather than a liveoperator. Pre-routing checks can include one or more of the following,wherein if a check fails, the call will be handled by an automatedsystem:

Was the call received during the Call Center hours of operation;

Does the number of calls in a Call Center queue exceed a threshold;

does the average call holding time exceed a given threshold?

Furthermore, the CM system 108 can pass Calling Party ID (Caller-IDsignaling information) and Caller Name signaling information associatedwith the call to the Automatic Call Distribution system. The AutomaticCall Distribution system can then display the name of the caller to theagent answering the call via a computer terminal associated with theagent. This information can be used by an agent to greet the caller andto pre-populate service registration screens. Additionally, because somecall answering services optionally require verification andauthorization to configure additional services on a subscriber'sexisting phone line, the network-based caller ID information can be usedto perform this billing authorization task.

Optionally, the call processing system interface to the PSTN allows theinbound call to be forwarded rather than bridged through the CallManager subsystem 108. In this case, in response to a caller action foradditional information, the Call Manager subsystem 108 signals thenetwork to forward the call to the Call Center. Similarly, when VoIP isbeing used, the Call Manager system 108 signals the SIP/VoIP network toforward the call to the Call Center.

Several of the examples described above refer to calls forwarded from acalled party's line to the call processing system. However, a call neednot be forwarded in order to be received and processed by the callprocessing system. For example, a personal phone number can be uniquelyassigned to a given subscriber by which calls to that number, if notanswered by the caller as a result of a “take the call” command by thecalled party, can result in a caller message being recorded (andoptionally screened), after which the call processing system can providethe promotional prompt or trailer prompts as similarly described above.The personal number can be, for example a telephone number that has beenacquired through governmental telephone number administration bodies,provisioned in the PSTN network, assigned to the ICA system andregistered to an individual subscriber.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example call flow diagram, including anabstraction of the previously described telecommunications system. Forclarity, the detailed breakout of the network elements and individualsubsystems of the ICA system 124 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are notshown in FIG. 3. As with other processes described herein, not all thestates need to be reached, nor does the call flow have to be performedin the illustrated order. In this example, the calling party isassociated with telephone terminal 102 and the called party isassociated with terminal 112. In this embodiment, the called party issubscribed to an Internet call answering service that forwards calls tothe remote ICA system 124 upon the occurrence of selected conditions,wherein the ICA system 124 transmits a notification to the called partyregarding the call and provides promotional prompts to the caller.

At state 301, a Calling Party, using terminal 102, originates a call toCalled Party Phone Line 114. At state 302, the Called Party LEC switch128 detects that the Called Party Telephone Line 114 busy (or theoccurrence of a ring-no-answer (RNA), or do-not-disturb (DND)condition). At state 303, the Called Party LEC switch 128 forwards thecall to the ICA Line/Trunk. At state 304, the ICA system 124 optionallynotifies the online computer 110 associated with the Called Party of theincoming call. For example, the notification can be provide via theInternet 104 to the client application executing on the computer 110. Atstate 305, the ICA system 124 answers the incoming call from the CallingParty and optionally receives and stores the Caller ID information,including the caller phone number, and optionally the caller name. Atstate 306, the PSTN 104 establishes a two-way talk path between the ICAsystem 124 and the Calling Party phone terminal 102.

At state 307, the ICA system 124 plays a greeting to the Calling Partyvia the telephone station 102 and asks the Calling Party to leave amessage. At state 308, the Calling Party, via telephone station 102,records a voice message, which is optionally streamed to a called partycomputer and/or phone terminal so that the Called Party can screen thecall. The ICA system 124 determines when the Calling Party has completedleaving the message. For example, if the Calling Party ceases speakingfor a predetermined amount of time, such as 2, 3, 4, or 5 seconds, thesystem 124 may determine the Calling Party has concluded leaving themessage. In addition, if the Calling Party presses a message terminationkey, such as the # key, the system 124 can conclude the Caller Party hasconcluded leaving the message.

At state 309, the ICA system 124 plays a solicitation prompt, such as asales lead generation trailer and/or related prompts. For example, theprompt can instruct the Calling Party to press a specified key orprovide a voice response in order to speak to a live operator in orderto register and become a subscriber of the services offered by the ICAsystem 124. Optionally, before playing the sales lead generation trailerand/or related prompts, a determination can be made as to the status ofcertain parameters, such as the number of times the trailer has beenpreviously played to the Calling Party, whether the called party'saddress book has a special designation stored in association with thecaller's name, whether the Calling Party is already a registeredsubscriber of the ICA system services, whether such prompts are to beplayed at the time and/or day of the call, and/or the type of call. Ifthe caller hangs-up or otherwise terminates the call before state 309 isreached, the processes is optionally terminated without a sales leadgeneration trailer and/or related prompts being played.

At state 310, in this example the Calling Party 102 selects the optionto speak with a live agent by pressing an appropriate key or otherwiseproviding an appropriate command. At state 311, the ICA system 124originates a new call to the Call Center 130. Optionally, the ICA system124 can insert the Calling Party's phone number into the ANI field ofthe new call so that the Calling Party's phone number and/or name can beautomatically presented to a Call Center agent via a calleridentification display, which can be a computer terminal, a dedicatedCaller ID display, or other display at state 312. By way of example, theCalling Party's phone number may have been obtained from the signalinginformation associated with the original call placed via the terminal102.

At state 312, the ICA system 124 bridges the Calling Party's telephonestation 102 to the Call Center 130. At state 313, the Calling Partyprovides the requested information, such as one or more of thefollowing: billing information, contact information, home phone number,work phone number, wireless/cell phone number, other phone numbers, homeemail address, work email address, other email addresses, and so onuntil the Calling Party finishes providing the requested information.The agent can enter the information via an electronic form or otherwise,which then can be recorded in an appropriate database or other datastore. A portion of the form can optionally be automatically populatedusing caller identification information, such as Caller ID information,provided by or retrieved using the caller's call signaling information.The Caller Party then terminates the call by hanging up the telephonestation 102. At state 314, the ICA system 124 releases bridgingresources and signals call completion to the Call Center 130.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example call flow diagram for a call initiallyplaced directly to a called party's call processing system personalnumber, including an abstraction of the previously describedtelecommunications system. For clarity, the detailed breakout of thenetwork elements and individual subsystems of the ICA system 124illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are not shown in FIG. 4. Not all the statesneed to be reached, nor does the call flow have to be performed in theillustrated order.

As will be described, in this example, the initial call is not forwardedto the ICA system 124, but is placed directly to the ICA system 124 viathe called party's personal number. In this example, the calling partyis associated with telephone terminal 102, as well as a personal number,wherein calls placed to the personal number are directed to the callprocessing or ICA system 124, without a call forwarding process. Thecalled party is associated with terminal 112.

At state 401, a Calling Party, using terminal 102, originates a call tothe Called Party's personal number and at state 402 the call isconnected via the ICA Line/Trunk to the ICA system 124. At state 403,the ICA system 124 optionally notifies the online computer 110associated with the Called Party of the incoming call, including acaller identifier, such as the caller ID of the caller. For example, thenotification can be provided via the Internet 104 to the clientapplication executing on the computer 110. At state 404, the ICA system124 answers the incoming call from Calling Party. At state 405, the PSTN104 establishes a two-way talk path between the ICA system 124 and theCalling Party phone terminal 102.

At state 406, the ICA system 124 plays a greeting to the Calling Partyvia the telephone station 102 and asks the Calling Party to leave amessage. At state 407, the Calling Party, via telephone station 102,records a voice message, which is optionally streamed to a called partycomputer and/or phone terminal so that the Called Party can screen thecall. The ICA system 124 determines when the Calling Party has completedleaving the message. For example, if the Calling Party ceases speakingfor a predetermined amount of time, such as 2, 3, 4, or 5 seconds, thesystem 124 may determine the Calling Party has concluded leaving themessage. In addition, if the Calling Party presses a message terminationkey, such as the # key, the system 124 can conclude the Caller Party hasconcluded leaving the message.

At state 408, the ICA system 124 plays a solicitation prompt, such as asales lead generation trailer and/or related prompts. For example, theprompt can instruct the Calling Party to press a specified key orprovide a voice response in order to speak to a live operator in orderto register and become a subscriber of the services offered by the ICAsystem 124. Optionally, before playing the sales lead generation trailerand/or related prompts, a determination can be made as to the status ofcertain parameters, such as the number of times the trailer has beenpreviously played to the Calling Party, whether the called party'saddress book has a special designation stored in association with thecaller's name, whether the Calling Party is already a registeredsubscriber of the ICA system services, and/or the type of call. If thecaller hangs-up or otherwise terminates the call before state 408 isreached, the process is optionally terminated without a sales leadgeneration trailer and/or related prompts being played.

At state 409, in this example the Calling Party 102 selects the optionto speak with a live agent by pressing an appropriate key or otherwiseproviding an appropriate command. At state 410, the ICA system 124originates a new call to the Call Center 130. As similarly discussedwith respect to FIG. 3, optionally, the ICA system 124 can insert theCalling Party's phone number into the ANI field of the new call so thatthe Calling Party's phone number and/or name can be automaticallypresented to a call center agent via a caller identification display,which can be a computer terminal, a dedicated Caller ID display, orother display at state 411.

At state 411, the ICA system 124 bridges the Calling Party's telephonestation 102 to the Call Center 130. At state 412, the Calling Partyprovides the requested information, such as one or more of thefollowing: billing information, contact information, home phone number,work phone number, wireless/cell phone number, other phone numbers, homeemail address, work email address, other email addresses, and so onuntil the Calling Party finishes providing the requested information.The agent can enter the information via an electronic form or otherwise,which then can be recorded in an appropriate database or other datastore. A portion of the form can optionally be automatically populatedusing caller identification information, such as Caller ID information,provided by or retrieved using the caller's call signaling information.The Caller Party then terminates the call by hanging up the telephonestation 102. At state 413, the ICA system 124 releases bridgingresources and signals call completion to the Call Center 130.

In another example, the initial greeting optionally provides promptsrelated to leaving a message for the called party and/or to inviting thecaller to register for the service the subscriber is using or a similarservice. Thus, a registration or subscription solicitation prompt canoptionally be played before recording a message from the caller. By wayof example, the caller can first record a message for the called partyand subsequently perform the registration process, or after firstperforming or completing the registration process, the caller can thenbe prompted via another greeting to leave a message, and the caller ['s]message for the called party can then be recorded. Optionally, at anypoint (including during the playing of a greeting or recording of amessage), or at selected points during a call session, the caller canpress an appropriate key, such as the “#” key, and transition to theregistration process.

For example, a caller can originate a call to a phone number associatedwith a called party. The call is directed to the ICA system 124. Atwo-way talk path is established between the ICA system 124 and theCalling Party phone terminal 102. The ICA system 124 plays a prompt tothe calling party via the telephone station 102. The prompt can includea solicitation prompt as well as a prompt regarding leaving a messagefor the called party. For example, the prompt can instruct the caller topress the “#” key (and/or wait for a record message tone) in order toleave a message for the called party. After leaving a message and/or inresponse to the caller pressing an appropriate key, such as the “#” key,the ICA system can then prompt the caller to register for callprocessing services or other services provided by the ICA system 124, orother like system. By way of further example, the prompt can instructthe calling party to press a specified key or provide a voice responsein order to speak to a live operator so as to register and become asubscriber of the services offered by the ICA system 124.

Optionally, before playing the solicitation prompt, a determination canbe made as to the status of certain parameters, such as the number oftimes the trailer has been previously played to the calling party,whether the called party's address book has a special designation storedin association with the caller's name, whether the calling party isalready a registered subscriber of the ICA system services, whether thesolicitation prompt is enabled for the day and/or time of the call,and/or the type of call.

If the calling party selects the option to speak with a live agent bypressing an appropriate key or otherwise providing an appropriatecommand, the ICA system 124 originates a new call to the Call Center 130and bridges the calling party's call to the Call Center 130. Optionally,the ICA system 124 can insert the calling party's phone number into theANI field of the new call so that the calling party's phone numberand/or name can be automatically presented to a call center agent via acaller identification display, which can be a computer terminal, adedicated Caller ID display, or other display.

The call center agent can request certain user information, and thecalling party can provide such information. The information can includeone or more of the following: billing information, contact information,home phone number, work phone number, wireless/cell phone number, otherphone numbers, home email address, work email address, other emailaddresses, and so on. The agent can enter the information via anelectronic form or otherwise, which the can be recorded in anappropriate database or other data store. After the information isprovided, the caller can be prompted to leave a message for the calledparty.

Thus, as described above, embodiments of the present invention provide aflexible, customer acquisition service that can be advantageously beused by service providers to promote their online or offline callanswering service. Certain embodiments advantageously enable the callerto subscribe to the service while experiencing the service first hand,but optionally after the caller has completed a communication with orfor the called party, such as by leaving a message for the called party.Further, in the same call session, without having to hang-up and callagain, a caller can optionally record a message for a system servicesubscriber, and become a system service subscriber him or herself.

It should be understood that certain variations and modifications ofthis invention would suggest themselves to one of ordinary skill in theart. In particular, the promotion of other enhanced services such ascall screening and discounted long distance should not be excluded. Thescope of the present invention is not to be limited by the illustrationsor the foregoing description thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: at least one computingdevice; non-transitory memory storing program instructions, that whenexecuted by the at least one computing device, are configured to causethe system to perform operations comprising: receiving a first call froma caller intended for a user wherein the first call includes callsignaling information including a phone address of the caller; playing asales lead generation prompt to the caller; determining that the callerhas entered an instruction provided at least partly in response to thesales lead generation prompt; and performing a call routingdetermination regarding a current availability of a call center, thecall center comprising call center human operators, to take the firstcall from the caller, and at least partly in response to a determinationthat the call center is currently available, connecting the first callfrom the caller to the call center, and at least partly in response to adetermination that the call center is currently unavailable, playing tothe caller an Interactive Voice Response menu.
 2. The system as definedin claim 1, wherein the call routing determination is based at least inpart on the call center's hours of operation.
 3. The system as definedin claim 1, wherein the call routing determination is based at least inpart on a current number of calls in a queue at the call center.
 4. Thesystem as defined in claim 1, wherein the call routing determination isbased at least in part on an average hold time for calls at the callcenter.
 5. The system as defined in claim 1, the operations furthercomprising: transmitting information provided by the caller to aninformation recipient, at the call center.
 6. The system as defined inclaim 1, wherein the connection of the first call to the call center isa bridged second call.
 7. The system as defined in claim 6, theoperations further comprising: populating an ANI field associated withthe bridged second call with the phone address obtained from an ANIfield associated with the first call so that caller identificationinformation can be presented to a call center agent.
 8. A computer-basedmethod of processing a call, the method compromising: receiving, at acomputing, system a first call from a caller intended for a user whereinthe first call includes call signaling information including a phoneaddress of the caller; playing, by the computing system, a sales leadgeneration prompt to the caller; determining that the caller has enteredan instruction provided at least partly in response to the sales leadgeneration prompt provided to the caller by the computing system; andperforming, by the computing system, a call routing determinationregarding a current availability of a call center, the call centercomprising call center human operators, to take the first call from thecaller, at least partly in response to a determination that the callcenter is currently available, connecting the first call from the callerto the call center, and at least partly in response to a determinationthat the call center is currently unavailable, playing to the caller anInteractive Voice Response menu.
 9. The method as defined in claim 8,wherein the call routing determination is based at least in part on thecall center's hours of operation.
 10. The method as defined in claim 8,wherein the call routing determination is based at least in part on acurrent number of calls in a queue at the call center.
 11. The method asdefined in claim 8, wherein the call routing determination is based atleast in part on an average hold time for calls at the call center. 12.The method as defined in claim 8, the method further comprising: atleast partly in response to playing to the caller the Interactive VoiceResponse menu, obtaining information provided by the caller; andrecording the obtained information from the caller.
 13. The method asdefined in claim 8, the method further comprising: recording a voicemessage from the caller for the user during the first call; anddetermining when the caller has completed recording the voice messageprior to the sales lead generation prompt being played to the caller.14. The method as defined in claim 8, the method further comprising: atleast partly in response to playing to the caller the Interactive VoiceResponse menu, requesting that the caller verbally provide informationto be used to set up a call services account; recording verballyprovided information from the caller; and transmitting at least aportion of the verbally provided information to a service person. 15.The method as defined in claim 8, wherein, prior to playing the saleslead generation prompt, information is accessed indicating how manytimes the sales lead generation prompt has previously been played to thecaller.
 16. The method as defined in claim 8, the method furthercomprising: recording a voice message from the caller during the firstcall; and streaming the voice message to a terminal associated with theuser in substantially real time.
 17. The method as defined in claim 8,wherein the connection of the first call to the call center is a bridgedsecond call.
 18. The method as defined in claim 17, the method furthercomprising: populating an ANI field associated with the bridged secondcall with the phone address obtained from an ANI field associated withthe first call so that caller identification information can bepresented to a call center agent.
 19. The method as defined in claim 8,the method further comprising: receiving a second call with associatedcaller identification information from the caller; based at least inpart on the caller identification information associated with the secondcall, accessing information indicating how many times the sales leadgeneration prompt has been played to the caller; and based at least inpart on the accessed information, determining whether to play the saleslead generation prompt to the caller again.
 20. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing computer-executableinstructions that when executed by a processor perform operationscomprising: receiving a first call from a caller intended for a userwherein the first call includes call signaling information including aphone address of the caller; playing a sales lead generation prompt tothe caller; determining that the caller has entered an instructionprovided at least partly in response to the sales lead generationprompt; performing a call routing determination regarding a currentavailability of a call center, the call center comprising call centerhuman operators, to take the first call from the caller; and at leastpartly in response to a determination that the call center is currentlyavailable, connecting the first call from the caller to the call center,at least partly in response to a determination that the call center iscurrently unavailable, playing to the caller an Interactive VoiceResponse menu.